Canadian man killed in Montana plane crash identified

Officials in Meagher County have identified the Canadian pilot who was killed in an airplane crash just northeast of Helena, near Hidden Lake in the Big Belt Mountains.

Meagher County officials say 56-year-old David Charron died in the crash Thursday afternoon, while his 54-year-old wife, Valerie, was injured.

"The lady said that they had that indicator that went off that said they were about to have a collision, so they turned, but they were in the clouds so they started taking out trees and crashed," Meagher County Undersheriff David Wendt said in an interview with CBC News in Calgary.

Meagher County Sheriff Jon Lopp was not immediately available for comment, but spoke earlier with CBC staff writer Jennifer Blair.

"The wings were broken off, but the fuselage was mostly together," Lopp said of the crash wreckage. "It appears the plane started losing altitude, started clipping trees."

According to Blair, rescuers were led to the remote crash site by Valarie Charron, who called rescuers for help and then maintained cellphone contact for the next five hours.

"Our understanding is she called 911 from the crash site," Blair told the Great Falls Tribune. "Her phone survived the crash to the point where it could make the call — she was uninjured enough that she could make the call — and there was enough cell coverage that she maintained communication the whole five hours it took them to get to her."

Blair said the CBC was able to contact David Charron's daughter at Benefis Health System in Great Falls, where at least three of the Charron children have gathered to support their mother and to plan for the family's return to Alberta.

"They're obviously very shaken up and in no mood to give comment to the media at this point," Blair said.

CBC reports the Charrons are from Chestermere, Alberta, a city of 17,000 people just east of Calgary. According to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Glenn Henry, Chestermere was established as a city separate from Calgary two months ago.

"This community, 10 years ago had less than 5,000 people," Henry said. "Now we're at 17,000 people with planning forcasts for 20 years down of 45,000 to 50,000 people."

Henry said that Chestermere is only now developing an independent community identity, and that law enforcement officials there had not been officially contacted regarding David Charron's death.

"In many cases where there's a sudden death we'll get a phone call asking to notify the next of kin," Henry said. "We did not get any such request, so our involvement has been nothing."

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this story